Over the years, the journal has published emerging writers alongside of established writers. The Idaho Review featured some of the early stories from Jennifer Haigh (2001) and Ben Percy (2004). In 2002, two Boise State MFA students (Bill Pettitt and Wil Miller) championed a manuscript from an unpublished writer in The Idaho Review slush pile. The story, “Bleed Blue in Indonesia” by Adam Desnoyers, appeared in that year’s issue and was reprinted in the 2003 edition of Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. In that edition, two of the twenty stories reprinted in the O. Henry Awards were from The Idaho Review.